It is the integrated person who recognizes that meeting with true success requires that one's life be balanced, holistic, meaningful, and guided by the "spirit as the inner source of energy and spirituality as the outward expression of that force" (Dehler and Welsh, 2003, p.115) or "lived religion" (Gould 2005).

The Integrated Person

Life Skills & Goal-Oriented Coaching

From day one, coaching focuses on the coachee/mentee. People participate in or seek out coaching because they want things to be different. They are looking for change or they have important goals to reach. People come to coaching for lots of individual reasons. They are motivated to achieve specific goals: to write a book, to start a business, to learn another language, to have a healthier body. They come to coaching in order to be more effective or more satisfied at work or to develop new skills to help navigate life’s changes. Sometimes people want more from life—more peace of mind, more security, or more impact in their work. And sometimes they want less—less confusion, less stress, less financial pressure. In general, they come to coaching because they want a better quality of life—more fulfillment, better balance—or a different process for accomplishing their life desires. Whatever the individual reason, it all starts with a stirring of motivation within the coachee/mentee (House, House & Sandahl, 2011 p.1).

Coaching is the opposite of judging and the need to control and direct. A coaching relationship helps people work out issues, find what is really causing their problems and find their own answers through the skillful use of listening and probing questions.

The Integrated Person- goal-oriented coaching methodology consists of the following core constructs:

Non-directive;

Goal-focused;

Action planning;

Performance-driven;

Self-tracking;

Quantifiable;

Course adjusted, when necessary for better results; and

Regular follow-up coaching sessions.

The goal-oriented approach to coaching diverges from more therapeutic or personal development approaches and “closely aligns with a constructivist approach to learning which provides a person-centered, authentic and challenging area for goal-directed, problem-based learning (Woolfolk, 1998).”

The primary objective is assisting the person to identify and form well-crafted goals and develop an effective action plan. The role of the coach is to stimulate ideas and action to ensure that the goals are consistent with the person's main life values and interests, life purpose and worldview rather than working on helping the person to adjust his or her values and beliefs, statement of personal purpose, and philosophy or worldview.

The goal-oriented approach aims to achieve its goals in a comparatively short space of time and normally focuses on a relatively defined issue or goal.

Coaching is a collaborative solution-focused, result-oriented, and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of life experience and goal attainment in the personal life of normal, non-clinical individuals (Grant, 2003).

Coaching does not focus directly on relieving psychological pain or treating cognitive or emotional disorders.

Coaching aligns well with adult and lifelong learning theory. Working through a goal-oriented, self-directed and active connection between new learning and life experience, as in adult learning, coaching addresses an individual’s need to know and readiness to learn. Reflective of adult learning theory (Knowles, Holton & Swanson, 1998; Rodgers, 1986), by operating from a responsive goal-centered framework, it allows learners to clearly understand the benefits, value and reason for learning thereby facilitating understanding of what is most useful to real life (Hurd, 2002; Skiffington & zeus, 2003).

The coach's skills lie in helping the coachee tell their problem story in a way that reframes the presenting problem as being solvable and highlights the client's resources and ability to define and move toward a solution, while at the same time building a collaborative relationship in which the coach has permission to hold the client accountable for proposed action steps. At its best, the solution-focused approach enables people to access and use the wealth of personal experience, skills, expertise, and intuition that resides within all of us. It allows coaches to find individualized and creative solutions to the issues and concerns that face them.

The following are a number of the essential features of effective coaching:

Coaching is a goal-oriented, solution-focused process in which the coach works with the coachee to help identify and construct possible solutions, delineate a range of goals and options, and then facilitate the development and enactment of action plans to achieve those goals.

Coaching is a systematic process designed to facilitate development (change) whether cognitive, emotional or behavioral or spiritual.

Coaching is intended for a non-clinical population.

Coaching is an individualized, tailor-made approach.

Coaching aims to encourage the coachee/mentee to assume responsibility for change of their life.

Coaching is based on the twin growth areas of awareness and responsibility.

Coaching is reliant on the twin skills of deep listening and generating powerful questioning.

Coaching involves a collaboration and egalitarian relationship, rather than one based on authority.

Coaching is an opportunity to introduce the coachee/mentee to the value of personal data for self-knowledge through self-tracking.

A coach creates a relationship within which the person agrees to be held accountable for the choices that they make:

Coaching is designed to access the inner resourcefulness of the person and is built on their wealth of knowledge, experience, and intuition.

Coaching is focused on the achievement of a clearly stated goal rather than problem analysis.

Coaching is intended to integrate the coachee/mentee dimensions of heart, mind, body and spirit through a focus on the whole person in recognition that a decision affecting one area of life inevitably ripples through all areas of one's life (House, House & Sandahl, 2011).

The coach's role is to find ways to direct the coachee's attention toward solutions, and to foster the emergence and development of a solution-focused mind-set. There are two key interrelated factors in this process: (1) changing the viewing-- that is, helping the coachee to perceive the issues in a new, more useful way, and (2) changing the doing-- that is, helping the coachee to develop behavioral change.

Changing the viewing involves at least five things: (1) detailing the preferred outcome, (2) identifying exception to the problem, (3) amplifying existing resources, (4) building coachee self-efficacy, and (5) acknowledging the progress made so far.

About Me

"Spirituality may ... be defined as the dimension of human experience that enables an individual to create, encounter or discover meaning, purpose, and value in life." - Louis F. Kavar, Ph. D. and Author of The Integrated Self: A Holistic Approach to Spirituality and Mental Health Practice

I am a graduate of College of the Holy Cross with a B.A. in Sociology and an urban planning concentration. During my time at College of the Holy Cross I learned how to effectively express my ideas through writing. It is also where I began to ask a number of really important questions: Who am I? What are my most deeply felt values? How am I willing to be? Do I have a mission or purpose in my life? Why am I in college? and What sort of world do I want to help create? Over the duration of my time spent in college, I learned how to develop personal goals, educational aspirations, and think intently about my religious and spiritual development and formulating a "spiritual quest". Steadily, I gained the confidence, experience, and personal satisfaction that comes through the practice of doing the hard work that is necessary to complete assignments on time and at a high standard in order to step closer to fulfilling my dreams even in those instances wherein the difficulties at times seemed nearly insurmountable. Yes, I learned right there alongside other students how best to persist and prevail.

Today, I see myself more as a "project pursuer", a transformational advocate, a wanderer around invisible peripheries, a witness and facilitator of emergent states (Guldi, 2010), and someone who is eager to work in collaborative relationships with social service organizations, nonprofit entities, and faith-based committees and others who are actively on their way to "framing deep change" and establishing "a new ethic of sustainability, spirituality, and a broader understanding of freedom (Horawitz et al, 2010)". The kind of change that will make the fullest possible use of collective energy or Spirit to drive us all toward a more 'empathic' humanity and by addressing the very important needs of today's urban youth at the local level by; 1.) enabling them to successfully make their transition to adulthood, 2.) facilitating their becoming productively engaged adult citizens, connecting themselves to meaningful work, in positive relationships, and creating a thriving and flourishing place for all, 3.) contributing to their social-emotional-spiritual development, 4.) encouraging the development of their inner knowing and intuition, 5.) cultivating connection with the divine and the sacred through music, visual, and performing arts, and 6.) promoting personal and cultural identity formation and inclusiveness through ongoing exposure to both familiar and universal values and constructive community building practices.

Thank you very much for taking the time to visit my blog. I welcome every possible opportunity to either speak with you by phone or email about the many ways of finding agency, hope, and purpose through face-to-face and heart-to-heart connections with the clear understanding that together we can make a bold impact and be the rising change that is greatly needed in the world today, a "deep change" that completely reflects care, compassion, respect, and universal spirituality or relationship with the "Divine Other (James H. Cone)".

Sincerely,

Jonathan Dunnemann (nickname "JD")

Let's not merely trust our instincts but counterbalance them with the careful consideration of our most important values.